I hesitate a hair too long.
“Oh dang! You did sleep with her!”
Silently, I stew, no one to blame for this but myself.
“Well.” Phillip, the voice of reason, crosses his legs and studies me from his spot. “I hope she’s worth it.”
A sinking hole bears down in the pit of my stomach. “What do you mean?”
“You didn’t just lose your heart—you lost your ass.” Phillip smirks.
“Good one.” Blaine puts his palm in the air so they can high-five.
I shift uncomfortably in my seat. “Guys, come on.”
“What do you mean, ‘Guys come on’?” Now Phillip crosses his arms, prepared to be a hard-ass. “A bet is a bet, and you, sir, lost.”
“I understand that, but what are we going to do about the season tickets and shit?”
Blaine speaks slowly as if I’m a child just learning how to speak English. “You. Forfeit.”
Is it me, or has this room gotten unbearably hot? “Yeah, but…I was assuming you’d take pity on me since I’m sacrificing everything I have for love, not some hook-up.”
“Ha!” Phillip smirks. “Nope.”
“Yeah. Wrong.” Blaine’s chuckle into his glass is equally as amused. “You know how much I love the Jags, and you know how broke I am. I now have a fighting chance to win those season tickets.”
Phillip chimes in. “Don’t worry though—we’ll bring you to one or two games.”
“No need to thank us.” Blaine laughs, putting his hands up in a gesture meant to portray his humility.
“You two really are bastards.”
I can’t fucking believe these two. I really can’t. They have no sympathy for me, and while we haven’t been friends our entire lives, I love them like brothers. I would think they’d make an exception for me since I had my damn heart broken by Kayla, but no. They’re going to be dicks about this whole thing.
“What if we say fuck it and dissolve the club?” I’m grasping at straws.
“It’s a society, not a club,” Phillip smartly corrects me.
“Are you insane?” Blaine’s eyes are bugging. “No. I broke up with my girlfriend for this. I thought she was going to stab me in the thigh with a spork when we talked about it.”
“Was she your girlfriend, though, or were you just datingggg?” Phillip teases.
“Shut up, asshole—I’m serious.” Blaine shoots him a glare so salty, Phillip shrinks down in his seat. Then he turns that look on me. “You can’t just start something because your life sucks, ruin ours, then decide you don’t want to do it anymore. It’s done—you forfeit, Phillip and I are the last men standing, and you can just sit back and watch me win.”
“Hey, hey now, girls, let’s not fight.” Phillip tries to smooth Blaine’s ruffled feathers. Our friend doesn’t get pissed often, but when he does—watch out.
“I haven’t ruined anything,” I grumble, knowing that’s a lie.
“I broke up with my girlfriend!” he shouts in outrage, and rightfully so, though I wouldn’t dare admit it.
“You wouldn’t have broken up with her if you actually loved her. You loved the idea of her, but you didn’t love her. Huge difference.”
Blaine considers this, shrugging. “Fair enough. No one twisted my arm to dump her, but I did, so sorry, loser. You forfeit, that’s the end of the game for you. We’re in, you’re out.”
“Fine.” My nod of acceptance is jerky and slightly spastic.
“Good.” Phillip smirks, having won this argument. “Now let’s talk about this chick, Abbott, whom we’ve never heard of. You said she lives in your building?”
“Yes, across the hall.” I shift in my seat. “We kind of became friends and then…you know the rest.”
“You actually love this chick?”
I bristle at his use of the word chick but keep my lips sealed shut; Lord knows I’ve use far worse words to describe the women they’ve dated in the past.
“I think so.”
“You must if you’re willing to come to us with your tail between your legs and give up everything you have just to date her. I mean, is she even a sure thing?” Blaine shoves several olives into his mouth like he’s hungry but doesn’t want to order an actual meal, determined to survive on garnishes alone.
My laugh is sardonic. “Not. At. All. In fact, I’m pretty sure she hates me right now. I haven’t actually seen her in a few days. She’s avoiding me.”
“Why?”
“Because after we had sex, she told me we’d make a great couple—which we totally would—and I told her I couldn’t date her.”
Phillip shudders. “Ouch.”
“Yeah.” Blaine cringes. “Bet that went over like a lead balloon.”
That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one. “Let’s just say if looks could kill, I’d be a dead man. And I have no food in my fridge anymore, so I’m also a man who’s been starving for the past few days.”
“Oh, tell her that—I bet she’d take you back in a heartbeat if she knew you needed her as a food source.” Phillip’s sarcasm is barely humorous.
Blaine taps his chin with the tip of his forefinger. “Can she take him back if they aren’t a couple?”
“No, but she can forgive him for being an ass.”
“Correction: she can forgive him for being a bastard.”
We raise our glasses and toast, wishing me luck as I try to win Abbott’s heart, and her forgiveness.
26
Abbott
I have been avoiding Brooks for days. It wasn’t my intention to completely stonewall him, but let’s be honest—looking into a man’s face after he tells you he isn’t interested is a kind of torment I want no part of.
Saying the words I think we would make a great couple was hard enough. Having him reject them?
Awful.
Humiliating.
And so, I’ve been avoiding him, hoping I know his routine well enough not to bump into him.
It’s childish because we’re supposed to be friends, but I don’t have the guts to see him.
Honestly? I’ve been depressed since I told him to shove off, which is the reason Sophia is sitting across from me on the sofa, cross-legged, spooning ice cream directly from the container.
“You want a bite?”
“No thanks, I’ve already eaten half of the cookies and cream. I feel sick.” I groan, holding my stomach, pointing the remote control at the television but not really seeing what’s on it. Who even cares?
“So, hypothetically…” Sophia begins for the hundredth time (she loves hypothetical scenarios and has been blasting me with them since she walked in the door). “If Brooks were to knock on your door and ask to see you, what would you do?”
“I’d slam the door in his face.”
The spoon Sophia has halfway in her mouth pauses, her throat humming out an unconvinced, “Hmm.”
“Hmm, what? I would.”